Religion and Public Life Announces 2023-24 Fellows
Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) has announced its 2023-24 Fellows in Religious Literacy and the Professions. This cohort of expert practitioners bring deep expertise and social justice commitments to a range of professions (government, education, journalism, organizing, humanitarian action, and arts and popular culture) and to our 2023-24 focus issue—Native and Indigenous rights.
The 2023-24 Religion and Public Life Fellows will join HDS in the fall to support the certificate in religion and public life available to students in the School’s master of divinity and master of theological studies degree programs. Throughout their fellowships, they will remotely support the Religious Literacy and the Professions course, mentor students, work with the program to identify student internship opportunities, and participate in webinars.
Religion and Public Life is an initiative that includes degree and certificate programs to advance the public understanding of religion in service of a just world at peace.
A full list of the 2023-24 Religion and Public Life Fellows can be found below:
CYNTHIA WILSON: RPL Native and Indigenous Rights Fellow
Cynthia Wilson is a tribal member of the Navajo Nation, born and raised in Monument Valley, UT. She is of the Folded Arms People clan and born for the Towering House clan. Cynthia holds a MS in Nutrition from the University of Utah. She serves as the Traditional Foods Program Director for Utah Diné Bikéyah, a native-led nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve and protect the cultural and natural resources of ancestral lands. She is also a founding member of the Women of Bears Ears initiative. Her work encompasses traditional knowledge that addresses the environmental, cultural, nutritional and spiritual health of the land and the people.
DEBORAH JIAN LEE: RPL Journalism Fellow
Deborah Jian Lee is an award-winning journalist, radio producer, and author of Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women and Queer Christians are Reclaiming Evangelicalism. She is an editor and reporter at The Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a nonprofit journalism organization supporting independent journalists covering economic inequality in America. She worked as a staff reporter for the Associated Press, taught journalism at Columbia University, and contributed to many publications, including Esquire, Fast Company, Foreign Policy, ELLE, Slate, Playboy, TIME, WBEZ, WNYC, and others. She was named a finalist for the Livingston Awards and won a Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Award.
ÁLVARO HUERTA: RPL Organizing Fellow
Álvaro Huerta, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Urban & Region Planning and Ethnic & Women’s Studies at California State Polytechnic University. He researches the intersecting domains of urban planning, Chicana/o-Latina/o studies, immigration, religion, social movements, social networks, and the informal economy. Huerta is the author of the forthcoming book, Jardineros: Cultivating Los Angeles' Green Landscapes with Brown Hands, Migrant Networks and Technology. He is also the author of the award-winning book,Defending Latina/o Immigrant Communities: The Xenophobic Era of Trump and Beyond (2019). Huerta has received numerous awards for his social/racial justice and civic engagement efforts, such as the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s 2016 Edward Blakely Award and the American Planning Association’s 2011 National Planning Leadership Award.
MAYTHA ALHASSEN: RPL Arts and Popular Culture Fellow
Maytha Alhassen, PhD, is a historian, TV writer + producer, journalist, social justice organizer, and mending practitioner. Alhassen was an on-air host for Al Jazeera English and TYT, and did field reporting for such outlets as CNN and Huffington Post. She co-edited Demanding Dignity: Young Voices from the Front Lines of the Arab Revolutions and wrote Haqq and Hollywood: Illuminating 100 Years of Muslim Tropes and How to Transform Them. In 2017, Alhassen was awarded a TED residency that culminated in the TED talk “A Poem for Syria: Beyond a Geography of Violence” about her ancestral relationship to Syria and work with displaced communities in the region. Currently, Alhassen produces and writes for Golden Globe and Peabody-winning Hulu series Ramy and serves as an Executive Producer for the upcoming docuseries American Muslims: A History Revealed.
MIKE DELANEY: RPL Humanitarian Action Fellow
Michael Delaney has worked in international development and humanitarian response for his entire career. During his 25 years with Oxfam America, he led humanitarian emergency responses for some of the largest scale disasters of this century. Delaney champions the primacy of local community involvement on both long-term development projects and emergency response programs, advocating that the voices of those affected by disasters are included in the design, implementation, and evaluation of emergency response. Delaney was also Executive Director of Perkins International and founded Crescendo International in response to the increasing demand for humanitarian action from the intensified climate crisis and global conflicts.
NAOMI WASHINGTON-LEAPHEART: RPL Government Fellow
Rev. Washington-Leapheart is the Strategic Partnerships Director for the social justice research and strategy center Political Research Associates. From 2019 to 2023, she served the city of Philadelphia as the Director for Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs in the Mayor's Office. Prior to working in municipal government, she was the Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, the country's oldest national LGBTQ justice and equality group. Rev. Washington-Leapheart serves on the boards of SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, Pride in the Pews, and Healing Communities PA. She is also an appointee to the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council of Church and State. Rev. Washington-Leapheart is an adjunct professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and Arcadia University. She is also the founder of Salt | Yeast | Light, a ministry grounded in facilitating spiritual candor, theological rigor, political disruption, deep reflection, radical action, and communal transformation.
SARABINH LEVY-BRIGHTMAN: RPL Education Fellow
Sarabinh Levy-Brightman has worked with Religious Literacy Project (RLP) and Religion and Public Life (RPL) since 2016. Levy-Brightman served as the initial Coordinator of the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative and then as the Senior Fellow for Curriculum and Workshop Development for the RLP. Prior to working with the RLP, she was a high school humanities teacher. She has long standing expertise in integrating the academic study of religion into the humanities in both public and private schools and currently represents RPL on IB’s team to redevelop their global world religions curriculum. Levy-Brightman is also interested in pedagogy that cultivates and nourishes an embodied intellect in the service of personal and communal transformation. To that end she is currently building an organization called ThoughtCraft/LifeCraft to develop and support innovative curriculum and teacher training. Levy-Brightman holds an MDiv from HDS, an MA from The Divinity School of the University of Chicago, and a BA in History and Religion from Vassar College.